Silk Road Closure 4th to 13th August

Engineers working for National Grid will be carrying out a high wire act on lines spanning the Silk Road in Macclesfield as part of a £8m project to keep electricity flowing to homes and businesses across the town, the county and beyond.

• National Grid carrying out vital work on power lines across the Silk Road
• £8m project to keep electricity flowing to homes and businesses across Cheshire and beyond
• Road closed from 4th to 13th August but supplies won’t be interrupted and businesses will be open as usual

The company is carrying out vital work to refurbish an 18km section of high voltage power line which runs between substations in Macclesfield and Bredbury near Stockport. The £8m project will see 55 pylons refurbished and given a special coating of paint to protect them from the elements and the wires they support replaced with new ones.

Work will see the closure of the Silk Road between its junctions with Bollington Road and Hulley Road to allow the engineers to carry out the work as quickly and as safely as possible. Traffic will be diverted via London Road and Manchester Road. Work has been scheduled to take place during the school summer holidays when traffic is lighter.

Ryan Hatcher, National Grid project manager said: “The wires we are replacing are getting on for 50 years old. They have served us well, delivering electricity at a flick of a switch for nearly five decades but the time has come to replace them. By investing in new lines and refurbishing the pylons that support them, we’ll be able to maintain National Grid’s first class record for reliability of supply.

“People may recall that we worked on this overhead power line around six years ago when we refurbished one side of the line. We usually try and do both sides as part of the same project but this line is a little different. Each side runs at a different voltage and splits off to connect to a different part of the grid, meaning we couldn’t do both sides together without turning off the electricity supply. We have planned carefully to minimise disruption during this essential maintenance work that will keep power flowing uninterrupted along this line, helping keep the lights on in Cheshire and beyond.”

Electricity supplies won’t be interrupted during the work and National Grid has written to nearly 6,500 local homes and businesses to give them further information about the closure of Silk Road. The company has set up a Freephone number for enquiries: 0800 8199 071 or people can email nationalgrid@macctobredoverheadline.com